blin

Etymology

Blin traces back through Middle English blinnen to Old English blinnan (“to stop, cease”), which came from Proto-Germanic *bilinnaną (“to turn aside, swerve from”), in turn from Proto-Indo-European *ley-, *leya- (“to deflect, turn away, vanish, slip”); it is equivalent to be- + lin. It is cognate with Old High German bilinnan (“to yield, stop, forlet, give away”) and Old Norse linna (Swedish dialectal linna, “to pause, rest”). See also lin.